Vancouver based Rodney Graham's first solo show at 303 Gallery is comprised of two new video-based works. Both works reflect his previous practice; inventing an independent subsystem through intervention of pre-exisiting systems.
Images from a laserdisc are projected onto a floating screen in the darkened front gallery. Titled Halcion Sleep, the piece documents in real-time part of an action undertaken by Graham in November of 1994. The piece begins in a motel on the outskirts of Vancouver. For the performance, he induced himself into a deep sleep by taking a heavy, though safe, dosage of Halcion which evokes a recollection of a tranquil past. He was subsequently transported to his apartment in the center of Vancouver where he was put to bed and slept the rest of the night. The 26 min. video documents the drive from the motel to his apartment as he sleeps in the backseat of the car in his pajamas.
In the back gallery, another video is played on a monitor. It is comprised of a looped segment of the first James Bond film, Doctor No, in which James Bond returns to his hotel room in Kingston, Jamaica, and inspects the room for evidence of an intruder. Over the images, the soundtrack written and read by Graham, has been added. His voice-over traces the entire narrative of the film from Bond's view point, which is appropriated as his own. This video is the first in a series in which Graham proposes to "re-tell" a number of Bond films.